


Meet cute (or not)

by hangrybluewhale



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-02 23:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17272928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangrybluewhale/pseuds/hangrybluewhale
Summary: He felt their connection click into place, their resonance rate rising so rapidly even he himself was- shocked. A bolt of lightning hit him smack in the chest and he fell, backwards, landing in an ungraceful heap on the floor.How did Marie and Stein end up as partners, anyways?





	1. Chapter 1

 

Marie looked across the table at her soon-to-be new Meister. He seemed utterly unperturbed by the prospect of a new partnership with her, despite the famously unwieldy nature of Mjolnir. Even Kamiko had trouble resonating with her when they’d first teamed up, all those years ago.

And they were best friends, while Stein... Stein was a stranger to her. Sure, they’d made polite smalltalk sometimes, while Spirit tried to flirt with Kamiko after their training lessons and was “Kami-Chopped” for his efforts. But even then their conversations had been mostly one-sided, typically ending awkwardly with Stein either turning away and walking off or worse, remaining silent and flatly ignoring her.

“Shinigami-sama, although I am aware of Spirit’s request to switch meisters and move out of Patchwork Labs, I am not sure why I am being assigned with Marie Mjolnir. As you know I am practiced with the Soul Menace technique, and do not require a Weapon to hunt down those on your List. A partnership with Mjolnir would be unnecessary and-”

“Now hang on a moment, Stein-kun!” Shinigami said. “I believe we’ve already discussed this, but your partnership with Marie here is a condition you must accept for me to allow you to remain at the DWMA. If Kamiko is to partner Spirit, Marie would be without a partner. Surely it would not be fair to her if she could not continue her mission to become a Death Scythe because she cannot find another Meister?”

To everyone’s surprise, Stein turned to face Marie. “You have raw power and natural talent. I think you have the potential to be an Autonomous Weapon. You do not need a Meister to become a Death Scythe.” He stated this in a matter-of-fact tone, and the words could have been encouraging if there had been more warmth behind them.

“I lost my left eye to an infection when I was a child,” Marie said. “Even if I managed to fight despite my blind side, I don’t have the years of training and experience most Meisters already have, and we graduate in two years. I don’t have the time to learn everything from scratch!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm her temper. Her fingers curled into fists in her lap. Death, she wanted to punch something. Who was Stein to want to back out of this, when he’d caused all this trouble in the first place?

As if sensing the tension in the air, Shinigami cut in. “Stein,” he began, and both Stein and Marie noticed that he had dropped the “-kun” suffix. “There is another reason why you are being partnered with Marie. However, to explain it I would need to explain Marie’s own heritage. Marie, would you be okay with that?”

“Uh, sure thing, Shinigami-sama.”

“ALRIGHT!” The Death Room darkened. Out of nowhere, a white screen descended, with slides and images projected on it. Shinigami hopped beside the screen, which now depicted a cartoonish sketch of a blonde man (or possibly a man with yellow snakes growing out his head) on it. “Marie is descended from the original Mjolnir hammer. He was first wielded by a Viking named Thor, whose control over lightning was so powerful he was known as Thor, the Lightning God. However great Thor was, he had one weakness: he felt the pull of Madness. The Berserker Rage, his people called it then, when they saw him crush his enemies on the battlefield. He nearly ended up on my List for all those he had slain...”

They transitioned into the next slide, with dramatic effects of the first slide spinning out of the screen. It manifested itself as ordinary paper, drifting to land on the table between Marie and Stein. Now the screen was flashing an image of a woman, whose arm was partially transformed into a hammer stamped with the familiar lightning insignia. The First Mjolnir. “No weapon dared to be partnered with him for fear of his rage. But this first Mjolnir saw the potential of a partnership with him, and told him...”

“That if he would impart his control over lightning to her, she would find a way for him to manage his Madness. In the meantime, if he wielded Mjolnir, his fall into Madness would be slowed because Mjolnir was so difficult to wield that it required great effort to bear for an extended period of time. If Thor showed any signs of being taken over by Madness, Mjolnir would wear him out so he would not have the strength to wreck destruction or harm anyone, until the wave of Madness had passed,” Marie said. “I’ve heard this story before, it’s been in our family for generations!”

Then she realised she had interrupted the Lord of Death himself. “Oh no, I’m so sorry Shinigami-sama!”

“Do you mean to say,” Stein interjected, “that I am to be paired with Marie so that I will be too ‘worn out’ to carry out my experiments in future? Or to put it bluntly, you’re hoping to keep me in a permanent state of exhaustion to prevent me from dissecting the other half of the student population?” Marie held her breath, half expecting Shinigami to be furious with him.

But the Death God instead raised his gloved hands in a peacemaking gesture, and said “We don’t know how you’ll respond to resonance with Marie. It may be that wielding Mjolnir will simply require more effort on your part and keep you more focused. It might be able to hold off the effects of Madness. Don’t you think it’s worth a shot, Stein-kun?”

~

Stein and Marie stood outside the Death Room in silence.

Shinigami had told them to discuss their situation and let him know if they’d agree to work together as Meister and Weapon. “You never know,” Shinigami was already bounding away from the surface of the mirror, cheerfully waving goodbye. “Sometimes the most different personalities can achieve the strongest soul resonance!”

The Death Room faded away in the surface of the mirror, until it was just an ordinary bathroom mirror set into the wall. Until it was just the both of them staring at their reflections in the mirror. The fluorescent lighting washed out the gray in his hair and any colour in his skin, making him look like a pallid ghost.

Marie didn’t seem to lose her “warm golden sunshine” aura, though Stein could feel the lightning coiled under her skin, tense and ready to strike.

Marie howled, a true Berserker cry of rage, as she turned to slam her fist into a wall. The wall crumbled, lightning branching out in blinding brightness, and even Stein had to admit he was impressed.

And maybe it was the charged energy still humming between them in the air, but when Stein reached for her soul wavelength with his own (just to see if he could), he felt their connection click into place, their resonance rate rising so rapidly even he himself was- Shocked. A bolt of lightning hit him smack in the chest and he fell, backwards, landing in an ungraceful heap on the floor.

Marie’s eye widened. “Oh Death-Stein, I’m so sorry thatwasme- we need to get you to the infirmary right away. I think it’s right down this hallway”

~

Marie had one of Stein’s arms thrown over her shoulder as she half led, half dragged him to the nurse’s office. Or at least, she thought they were headed in the right direction. This was the third time they’d walked past the Crescent Moon classroom.

“I think it’s a left turn here and we should be right there.”

“We’ve taken at least ten left turns, Marie. We’re walking around in circles.”

“Oh why don’t you lead the way then, if you’re so sure of your sense of direction right now.”

They reached the infirmary in less than five minutes.

~


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Marie,” Stein said. “Do you think you could trust me?” 
> 
> Marie stared at him. The question had been thrown at her out of nowhere. 
> 
> “I think I’d have to trust you, if we’re going to be partners,” she said.
> 
> He grinned, and there was something unsettling to it this time. It twisted his features, a parallel to the slasher smile on the moon outside the window. 
> 
> “How interesting. That’s almost exactly what Spirit told me once.”

“A few more hours in the infirmary and he’ll be alright. But I’m concerned about you as well, Marie. A rejection, a failed attempt at soul resonance, can do internal damage to the soul. Are you sure you’re feeling well?” 

The school nurse said this while looking her over with an expression of concern. Marie smiled with a confidence she did not truly feel. “I’m fine, really. Don’t worry about it.”

The school nurse looked unconvinced, but she chose to drop the matter. “You can stay with Stein if you want to. He’s your Meister right? He should be fit for classes by tomorrow morning. I’ll need to check in on Spirit now, I think it was something about a book-related injury? I’ll be in the next ward if you need me.” 

Marie nodded. She heard the soft click of the door as it shut, and exhaled. 

Because it hadn’t been soul  _ rejection,  _ at least not exactly. 

Somewhere in the spaces where their souls had met there’d been an uncannily familiar spark. It was like meeting a stranger, one she’d never seen before, but when she saw their face there’d been a voice in her head that said 

 

_ Oh. It’s you. I know you.  _

 

But that was silly. She knew Stein, even if they were just acquaintances. But never before had she experienced a resonance with anyone on that level. 

It wasn’t the easy warmth that seemed to wrap around her when she resonated with Kamiko, the steady, solid rhythm of their heartbeats in sync. That was more of a comforting assurance of friendship, a sort of  _ I’ve got your back and I trust you enough to know you’ve got mine.  _

Souls had their own language, their own ways of communication.

_ Let’s see how far we can take this.  _ His soul spoke to hers-and hers to his. It was a challenge. It was a promise, and for a moment when they’d resonated it was the first time that she’d truly felt like a Mjolnir, like a force to be reckoned with. 

Wild. Unpredictable. Devastating. Storms made flesh, made steel. Thor’s Hammer, to be wielded by only the worthy. 

And Stein was mad. Could he truly be worthy? 

 

~ 

Stein was conscious, but his soul didn’t seem to be in his body, exactly. He was almost floating above his own sickbed, and he recognised the person seated by his bed with a small spark of surprise. 

Never before had there been a weapon he couldn’t wield. Even the most belligerent of souls he’d managed to turn over to his own will and achieve some form of resonance. But Marie...

Marie was one of the most easy-going people he’d met, but her soul was a challenge even to him. Soul resonance, to him, was usually like speaking into a telephone and hearing his own voice on the receiving end, but perhaps more loudly and clearly. Resonating with Marie was more like having his voice come back in erratic spurts, alternating between whispers and shouts. 

But for one nanosecond he’d felt this sense of clarity deep within his soul, enough to push back the waves of Madness he’d felt slowly closing in on his sanity. Maybe it was his determination to understand Marie’s wavelength, maybe it was the shock of having one billion volts of electricity strike directly into his soul, but the hold of Madness on him had weakened for just that brief period of time. 

It was far from perfect, far from the ease with which he’d resonated with Spirit. But that door was closed to him now. 

And they did have potential, he and Marie. 

It would be an interesting experiment, if nothing else. One that could add on to his unfinished research on soul studies. He already had notes on Spirit’s wavelength, trying to understand that high degree of wavelength control that seemed as natural as breathing. 

Perhaps by analysing Marie’s wavelength, he would have a more complete understanding of souls. It was unlikely another opportunity for him to find another weapon partner with such a strange wavelength. 

Maybe partnering with Marie wasn’t such a bad idea.

 

~

Stein woke slowly, as though his consciousness was rising to the surface of a deep body of water. In the chair next to him, Marie stirred. “You’re awake!” She flushed then, and looked guilty. 

“I’m really, really sorry-.”

“I know, I heard you the first fifty times on our long journey here.”

“For the record, I was right about that last turn, otherwise you’d have led us in the wrong direction.”

He grinned at the look of indignation on her face then, and, instead of looking uncomfortable (as most students did), she responded with one of her own.

But the moment was wearing off, and they would have fallen back into awkward silence if Marie hadn’t said

 

~

“Do you want to be partners with me?”

_ Oh Death, I blurted that out just like that.  _ She didn’t want to sound desperate, but she barreled on nonetheless. 

“Look, I-we could make each other better.”

He gave her an unimpressed look, lenses flashing as he raised his head to look at her. “Do you mean to cure me of Madness with your tender, loving care? I seem to recall that the previous time I was in your angelic presence you nearly managed to shock me unconscious.” 

“My-you were conscious enough to get us to this place! And the nurse just told me you’d make a full recovery by tomorrow, it wasn’t that bad!” 

“Ah.” Stein leaned back against the pillows with a smirk. “So you admit that you’d have been hopelessly lost without me.” 

“That’s...not the point. You’re changing the subject!” Marie huffed. “If you don’t want to partner me, you don’t have to, okay? We’ll go back and talk to Shinigami-sama and find another way out of this mess.”

 

“Marie,” Stein said. “Do you think you could trust me?”

Marie stared at him. The question had been thrown at her out of nowhere. 

“I think I’d have to trust you, if we’re going to be partners,” she said.

He grinned, and there was something unsettling to it this time. It twisted his features, a parallel to the slasher smile on the moon outside the window.   

“How interesting. That’s almost exactly what Spirit told me once.”

 

Marie was on her feet in an instant, the chair toppling behind her with a crash. She barely heard it. 

“How could you say that?” Her voice was shaking with rage. “He trusted you. He believed in you. That you were stronger than this! When Kamiko told him what you’d done” - she took a deep breath, then continued- “he was absolutely devastated.”

“I promised I wouldn’t hurt him, and I didn’t. He had scars, yes, but otherwise physically he was fine. I believe that his ability to control wavelengths have been enhanced by my experimentation. Kamiko should be grateful for that. I’ve done most of the work for her. All they have to do is kill a Witch and he’ll be a Death Scythe.”

 

He watched Marie’s hands ball into fists at her sides. Apparently ‘The Pulveriser’ had a temper. 

 

“You don’t understand! Spirit may not have been physically hurt by what you did, but it was still a serious blow to him emotionally. He trusted you and you chose to repay that trust by violating him, cutting him open night after night!” 

She fell silent then, afraid that she’d gone too far. His face was hidden from hers, his hair falling over his eyes. The pale light of the moon cast shadows on him in slashes of grey-black.

"Stein, I’m not exactly involved in this, so it’s not really my place to judge. But I feel like, if you’d asked Spirit back then if you could run those tests on him, he might have actually agreed to it. Heck, from what I know, the two of you have done some pretty weird shit together. Not that we can turn back time or anything, but asking could have made all the difference.”

 

Stein didn’t respond. 

 

But Marie’s words had forced him to look at his own actions in a different light. 

 

To him, it had been an experiment for the sake of research, even if he did get a kick from dissecting Spirit while he slept, dead to the world. He could have taken Spirit apart, pieced him back together, studied the shape of his soul and rhythm of his wavelength. And Spirit would have been none the wiser, continuing to snore on and dream of Kamiko and the dozens of other women whose skirts he’d been chasing. 

But sick humor aside, he’d never really asked Spirit to be his test subject because his consent hadn’t really mattered to him then. He’d never dreamed that he’d be found out.

And now it had cost him their friendship.

That hurt more than he’d thought it would. Not that he would ever admit it.

 

Stein craned his head back to look at Marie, which was not something he’d ever had to do. She barely cleared 5 feet tall, even in heels. She was still scowling at him. 

 

“I think I will have a chat with my senpai on this someday,” he said calmly, in a neutral tone. “In the meantime I think we should discuss our situation. But given my past record with my Weapon partners, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d rather wait for someone else to wield you. I am-”

“Mad?” Marie arched an eyebrow, arms folded across her chest. “You can’t hold someone accountable for their thoughts or feelings. Madness affects your emotions, but you can still control your actions. It wasn’t the Madness that made you do what you did to Spirit.”   

She paused for a moment, then sat down on the bed so she could look him in the eye. “But Lord Death’s willing to give you a second chance. I have hope that you can be better than this. You  _ are  _ better than this.” 

“You’re not afraid that I’ll do to you what I did to Spirit?”

“I’m known as ‘The Pulveriser’ in this academy for a reason. But besides that, I think- I think- that you do regret what happened with Spirit. And you won’t do it again. Not to me. Not to anyone.” 

 

She meant it. She really did. Stein wanted to laugh. He wanted to tell her she was an idealist, a fool. 

Instead, he heard himself saying “Then I guess we’ll have to let Lord Death know that we’ll be partners from now on.” 

Marie smiled. It was a slow, hesitant smile, but it was genuine. She felt as though she was on the edge of a precipice, about to fall into something she’d never experienced in her entire life.  

 

“I’m looking forward to it.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First fic ever and I didn't get a beta but I hope y'all like it! I don't know if I made them seem a little OOC but I also wanted to try making Marie seem less willing to excuse what Stein did to Spirit, as is sometimes seen in fanfic. 
> 
> I personally headcanon that Marie's healing wavelength isn't something she was born with bur rather is an ability she acquired. How she did this may be revealed in a future fic if I ever get around to writing it. 
> 
> As always, constructive criticism is much appreciated!


End file.
